Saturday - July 25, 2015

Tsioque - New Kickstarter

Its key features are: meticulous, hand-drawn 2d animation and a music system designed to dynamically follow the player's actions, which combined create a unique experience, merging boundaries between adventure game and animated film.

Darkness, humour and animation. Tsioque, a new adventure game, has just been launched on Kickstarter

Creators of critically acclaimed Tormentum, Polish OhNoo Studio, joined forces with award-winning animation filmmaker Alek Wasilewski (Lucky Day Forever) to create a whimsical, frame-by-frame animated point click adventure game in a dark but humorous fairytale setting.

Tsioque is a playfully dark 2d point and click adventure game inspired by such classics as Day of the Tentacle, Dragon's Lair or Ron Gilbert's Pajama Sam series. The game is being created with the use of meticulous frame-by-frame animation, where each second of gameplay requires multiple frames to be drawn by hand from scratch. By combining the hand-drawn 2d animation and a music system designed to dynamically follow the player's actions, the developers hope to create a unique experience [merging boundaries] between adventure game and animated film.

The protagonist is a little warrior princess named Tsioque, imprisoned in a castle ruled by the Evil Wizard. She's not the kind of princess who waits for Prince Charming to rescue her - she's brave and stubborn, and has an unusual talent for bringing unintended chaos and destruction wherever she goes.

During her escape, Tsiqoue will explore a castle with a mysterious past, which - bound by a powerful spell - has not only become home to demons and magical creatures, but also, itself, has been affected by the evil power... It bends and shapeshifts, forming layers upon layers of transformation and illusion. It is an essential part of the plot and – especially later in the game – is tightly integrated into the gameplay.

“And if you think it's just about a girl in a castle - well, you're in for a surprise.” - says Alek Wasilewski, adding that we may expect many surprising twists and turns in the game.

The developers hope to raise $35,000. Most of this money will go to creating more frame-by-frame animation, which is the most labor-consuming part of the project. During the next 44 days, the campaign can be followed and supported on its official Kickstarter page. It's worth mentioning that many interesting rewards wait for those who decide to support the project. The title will be available for PCs and is to premiere next year.

Kickstarter

TechRaptor - Playing Roles: On Co-op and Multiplayer

This article is not about MMOs, however, as those online RPGs are a separate discussion in and of itself. What should be discussed is how games such as Borderlands, among others, have slowly been evolving our perceptions of role-playing games further, while simultaneously influencing other genres with their design. Co-op play is increasing in popularity in role-playing video games, and titles like Borderlands are at the forefront of either an emerging genre in RPGs or a pre-existing genre that has long been dormant.

To fully understand how, we need to look back at the history of multiplayer in RPGs. Most computer and console RPGs have been primarily a single player experience by definition, and it is mostly due to design. The book Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design, describes role-playing games as having a developed storyline structure and setting, with players having complete control of their party at all times. Many games, from the classic SSI Goldbox titles to Square and Enix games, tend to follow this paradigm to the letter; the player has complete control over their experience based on their choices, characters, equipment, and progression. As we have mentioned previously, the plotline is unaffected, but players also control the narrative tone of some of these games as well.

The full control of a role-playing game experience of course varies between a person’s preferences. Fans of dungeon crawlers like Wizardry, for example, look for specific design choices when choosing a game to play, and having full control of the player’s party, character classes, equipment, formation, and inventory is paramount of the genre. It has been argued previously how the etymology of role-playing games is difficult to pin down, so the best solution would be to divide games through genre by design, not by country of origin. For a game like Borderlands, such classification can be difficult at first glance.

Many don’t consider it a RPG in any form, instead a first-person shooter with RPG elements attached. While there is a growing number of games outside of the RPG genre incorporating such elements into their design, Borderlands follows a more standard design philosophy found in most RPG games, from open world design, to non-linear character progression. Players have complete control over the optimization and growth of their character, right down to the weapons and abilities they use in combat. Borderlands also borrows many elements often seen in modern role-playing games, namely aesthetic design of inventory—multi-colored, multi-tiered items based on rarity—uniqueness of character classes, quest-based mission structure, and character rewards and progression.

Fallout 4

Friday - July 24, 2015

Rampant Games - Good Looks, But No Interaction

by Myrthos, 19:19

The Rampant Coyote talks in his blog about good looking 3D worlds that are just pretty pictures and offer little to no interaction.

Naturally, as a game developer, I knew better. I looked forward to playing games that were as beautiful and fully realized as this, and knowing all the while that once they were, just poking around the landscape wasn’t gonna do it for anybody. And that all came to pass very quickly. And we took it for granted, looking forward to even more beautiful, more realistic worlds, ignoring the incredibly interesting details because there are bad guys in need of shooting!

But I think there’s more to it than that. It’s not just that we take these beautiful worlds for granted because we’re so used to them. I think we miss these painstakingly-textured details because they are meaningless to us. The pock-marks on the wall, the old posters, the burn-marks… in theory, they help tell the story of the landscape that we’re in. But in reality – it’s all just a soundstage. All that beautiful set dressing is simply to hide the fact that we’re on a linear obstacle course.

And so we’re used to these prettier worlds being of the “look, don’t touch” variety. In fact, we’re pretty accustomed to the idea that the prettier a 3D world is (relative to modern technology), the less interactive it is. All that incredible detail comes at a price, and that is that you can’t move things around and screw things up. There’s nothing behind those doors, and the forest in the background is just a picture.

Rampant Games

Victor Vran - Release trailer

by Myrthos, 19:08

Victor Vran has been released today and that comes with a release trailer.

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The new demon hunting action-RPG Victor Vran officially releases today. After just five months in Early Access, Victor Vran is released with amazing 94% user approval from the Steam Community. The game won the hearts of the players with its action packed combat dynamics, where dodging and jumping mean the difference between life and death.Victor Vran features four player coop gameplay, a class-less gear-based character progression system, dozens of secrets, over 400 different challenges and dynamic difficulty personalization. The game was created with replayability in mind and promises many hours of pure fun on top of the 20-hour story campaign.

The game is available on Steam and GOG and don't forget to check out our review of the game.

Original Sin EE

Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Release Date

by Myrthos, 16:31

The release date for Shadowrun: Hong Kong is set for August 20th, 2015 andwill be available on Steam, GoG, & Humble Bundle on that day at 10am PST.

Estimating, scheduling and delivering something as complex as SR:HK is tough and I’m extremely proud of the entire team for their focus, dedication, and hard work. I’d like to say a special thank you to our ace Producer, Chris Klimecky and my co-Director, Mike McCain for their work in getting the game to you on time. Mike joined me at the helm a ways back so I could dedicate more time to writing, and his work has been first rate - just like it was on Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut.

The game’s really coming together and it’s amazing to see the team’s hard work and creative collaboration on-screen. Making games is an incredible challenge but making games with these folks is an absolute pleasure.

We’ll be sending out another update in the next couple of weeks regarding how to get your keys from BackerKit and an update on all the remaining Kickstarter rewards.

Shadowrun: Hong Kong

Ghost of a Tale - Development Update & Interviews

by Myrthos, 12:34

Seith provides a new development update for Ghost of a Tale, in which he also mentions an early release on Steam happening in the not too far future.

Just a couple of development news: Paul has been hard at work on writing the game’s dialogs and it’s all shaping up very nicely. I’ve even added queries into the time-of-day system so NPCs can greet you while mentioning the proper time of day (ie: “Good afternoon!”).

I’ve done a pass on optimizing the UI and that paid off; I was able to shave off a handful of frames-per-second by reworking the entire system and separating each canvas into its own prefab.

Incidentally the UI system (inventory, dialogs, main interface, etc…) is starting to come into its own and feels more and more consistent.

So things are moving forward at a steady pace! The amount of work left to do is still rather daunting though. I think that within a few weeks I should be able to accurately assess the situation with regard to an early release.

Of course release plans have not been finalized by a long stretch yet but it is looking more and more like we’re going to do an early release of the game on Steam. In any case I will post many more details about that in an upcoming update!

And he mentions an interview in French and English. The latter one discussing amongst others, the technical aspect of creating the game and the Unity engine.

The game runs on the Unity engine. I feel very lucky that I started using Unity when it took a turn towards better visual fidelity. I had heard of the engine before and was very far from convinced (based on the quite outdated visuals). But within two years it became an excellent engine capable of outputting AAA graphics.

I love the simplicity of development; it’s mostly based on individual components/scripts which is (in my opinion) a very flexible approach. I know hard-core coders usually prefer C++ but I’m primarily an artist (although I do have experience coding tools using Python). So I learned C# in order to code in Unity and I never looked back. Unity is not perfect of course (no engine is) but in my opinion it’s getting freaking close! I believe the thing that still hinders Unity is based on the fact that it’s not quite yet used by many AAA studios. But as things evolve I think it will continue improving and add features that are really useful for larger, more technically demanding games.

One such feature I’m waiting for is a robust way to manipulate multiple scenes at once, which would be useful for games like Ghost of a Tale which rely on streaming parts of the world to keep things smooth.

CRPG Book Project - 12 more notable RPGs

Now, if that wasn't clear last time, I'm intentionally leaving out games like Diablo, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and other extremely popular titles that everyone know about in order to focus on the obscure and amusing games, mechanics or even curiosities.

This once again is just a random sampling of cool/weird computer RPGs I wanted to talk about, in no way intended to be a comprehensive listing - that's what the CRPG Book is for (..)

Mass Effect - Series Retrospective @Twenty Sided

No matter where you draw the line, it's very clear that Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 3 are radically different games, and within the series we can see the change from "Classic BioWare" to "Nu BioWare". At the start we have lavishly detailed worldbuilding, very trope-ish arch characters, stiff animations, and gameplay with generally lousy game feel. At the end the focus is on characters instead of worldbuilding, and the old RPG mechanics have been replaced by mainstream action shooter sensibilities.

This creates an unfortunate rift in the fanbase. Love it or hate it, those new shooter mechanics are a lot more popular than the RPG-focused combat of Mass Effect 1. A big chunk of the player base hasn't even played the first game, and shooter fans who fell in love with Mass Effect 2 went back to see what they missed in the first game and found it completely unplayable. [...]

Mass Effect

Lords of the Fallen 2 - Tomasz Gop Leaves

by Gorath, 00:28

Executive producer Tomasz Gop leaves the Lords of the Fallen 2 project and is on the way out of CI Games, says Eurogamer. The publisher wants to go into a new direction with the game:

"We want to reach a wider audience for this game. That's why we're building a richer story. We're aware that these aspects could've been better in first game, so the story is a big point of the sequel, along with robust fighting system. We want to bring something fresh to RPG games."

Lords of the Fallen 2

Piranha Bytes - Creative Director Looks Back at All Games

by Gorath, 00:20

GameStar.de asked Piranha Bytes' creative director Björn Pankratz what PB thinks about their own games now that both the Gothic and the Risen franchise are behind them for the time being. The clou: he had to answer in one brief statement per game. Although I feel tempted to quote the whole piece I'll limit myself to his quote (transl.) about Risen 2:

We've implemented many important new mechanics in Risen 2, which we still use today. [...] But all in all we were too pirate-y. We've lost the fantasy aspect there.

Piranha Bytes

Fallout: NV - Total Conversion Fallout: Project Brazil Release Soon

by Gorath, 00:04

The developers intend to release their Fallout: Project Brazil total conversion before Fallout 4 comes out. It's currently in beta. Here's what it's about, and the new intro at the bottom of the newsbit.

This is a near Total Conversion for Fallout: New Vegas. Fallout: Project Brazil adds an all new story around a new player character, an adopted resident of Vault 18, embarking on a quest to a hidden complex in the ruins of Los Angeles. Along the way you'll discover a pitched battle between the Survivalist Army, the New California Republic, and The Super Mutants, which shapes the politics and events leading to the NCR's invasion of the Mojave. The story takes place in 2260 - many years before the "Courier" awakes in New Vegas, while the Enclave struggles to rise again on the West Coast.

The Mod branches off from New Vegas right from the New Game menu. The game will be released in chapters, with the first release containing 3 parts. The full campaign will contain 16 Main Quests and several side stories, all related to the player's journey through Vault 18 and the wasteland of San Bernardino. Their choices at each stage will shape the next, creating 2 plathroughs worth of unique content.

The download of the First Installment comes with a custom installer package containing a few optional add-ons for your game, like the SGhi.info REVELATION Interface, and DLC compatibility patches.

The game features several hours of new exploration and game play, with each branch of the story telling a new tale for repeat playthroughs.

Fallout: NV

Thursday - July 23, 2015

Fallout - New Fallout Anthology Announced

by Gorath, 23:55

Just before the upcoming Fallout 4 release Bethesda puts all the older Fallout games into one box and calls it a Fallout Anthology. The box is something special.

Hi everyone!

We're pleased to announce Fallout® Anthology, the definitive PC collection from the award-winning Fallout® series, will be released on September 29, 2015 for $49.99. Fallout Anthology features five critically-acclaimed games and official add-ons in a premium collectible set, with a space reserved to add your copy of Fallout® 4. This ultimate collectible is packaged together in an exclusive mini-nuke storage case with audible bomb sound.

This Fallout collection includes:

· Fallout 3: Game of the Year Editiono The Pitto Operation: Anchorageo Broken Steelo Point Lookouto Mothership Zeta

Fallout

Elminage Gothic - A Unique Gem

In this quick video I take a look at some unique characteristics of Elminage Gothic, and try to explain what makes the game great! Take a peek and see what you think!

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Hey everyone! In this quick video I talk about some of the great and often overlooked features of Elminage Gothic that make it an outstanding game. Everything from the brutal difficulty level to the maze-like dungeons is discussed in this video! Note - This is not ALL of the great features of the game, just a few very unique ones that make the game stand out as a dungeon-crawling RPG!

Elminage Gothic

RPGWatch - Victor Vran Review

by Myrthos, 22:10

Yesterday we had a roundup of Victor Vran reviews and today we have our own. Our forum member Greywolf00 reviewed the game for us.

Character building is definitely different than the usual skill tree approach seen in the genre. The game presents your class choice when you're deciding between three different outfits. The outfit changes the look of the Vran doll used in talks and also decides how you gain Overdrive. Overdrive controls your demonic powers, basically a magic system. You start with one demonic power and slot and unlock another slot at level 14. Other powers are found as drops. One outfit builds overdrive as you fight ensuring you have your magic available in combat heavy situations. Another changes it so you only gain overdrive passively overtime regardless of combat creating a situation where you can always have your magic for the start of tough battles, provided you're willing to wait for it to fill if needed. The final outfit creates a situation where you only gain overdrive after landing a critical strike. At level 15 you're granted a choice between 3 outfits granting you an additional "class" to change to or use when it may be beneficial to do so. For my choices I was presented with the 2 starters I didn't originally pick and one that boosted HP, but made no mention of overdrive changes on the tooltip. It also sounds like outfits are offered several other times as a leveling benefit since there's an achievement for having 6 of them. At first glance this is a disappointingly simple system, but it meshes nicely with others like the destiny cards.

Victor Vran

Steam - There aren't 'too many' games on Steam @ PC Gamer

by Hiddenx, 19:03

Evan Lahti (PC Gamer) has written an article about the current game-glut on Steam - a snippet citing Swen Vincke:

How small studios feel about Steam

Whatever your reaction to this trend, the people whose lives are most braided to it are independent developers and publishers. And when I reached out to them to talk about Steam, I was surprised that the majority of them are unfazed by how crowded Valve’s platform has become.

To Swen Vincke, CEO at Larian Studios, today’s Steam is simply a return to the way things were before digital distribution, but not in a bad way. “Access to retail used to determine which games we got to play, something that hampered the evolution of videogames,” says Vincke, who believes digital distribution has created “a true renaissance” in the industry. “However, the quantity of games being released now means that the new barrier to entry has become discoverability, and as a developer you need to plan from day one how your target audience will find out about your game, and ensure that your game has more reasons to be played by players than a similar game your competitor may be making. Which, if you think about it, is exactly how it’s always been. There are just more competitors now, so there’s no room for slacking. That’s a good thing, too, in my opinion.” [...]

Steam

Telepath Tactics - Brass Tacks and Sales Stats #2

With that in mind, how is Telepath Tactics doing so far? Three months after release, I have sold approximately 3,000 copies total across all platforms, with gross sales revenue upwards of $36,660.

Net sales revenue, which accounts for the cut taken by the various distribution platforms, is a good deal lower than the gross–note that net is the amount I actually receive. Valve prohibits developers from disclosing data regarding sales made on Steam, so I cannot reveal my net revenue or otherwise break down my total sales by distribution channel. Ultimately, however, the breakdown doesn’t really matter for my purposes: regardless of what the distribution is, I (1) succeeded in fully recouping my out-of-pocket expenses, (2) made a small profit, and (3) failed to make enough money at launch to support myself making a game full-time over the next two years.

Is that good?

In a word: no. SteamSpy estimates that the average RPG on Steam alone has more than 10 times that number of owners. But more importantly, these sales numbers don’t meet my ultimate goal of allowing me to move into game development as a sustainable full-time job.

Someone unfamiliar with the games industry might think that $36,660 is pretty good for just the first three months of a game’s life span–and it would be, if I were a developer who was able to pump out games every 6 months, or even every year. But Telepath Tactics began development in 2009–$36,660 is not anything close to a sustainable amount of revenue for a game with such a lengthy development cycle.

And unfortunately, the fact that it’s only been 3 months since release isn’t a reason to expect much more in the way of sales revenue. Games mostly behave like movies opening in theaters, with launch week analogous to a movie’s opening weekend: traditionally, the bulk of a game’s profits are made at (and shortly after) launch, with a mere drip-feed of sales following from that point onward.

True to form, sales of Telepath Tactics have thus far followed this “L” trajectory. The vast majority of all money made by the game was made in its first week, before the game dropped too far off of Steam and GOG’s respective “new releases” charts for prospective buyers to easily find it. Telepath Tactics is now in what is traditionally referred to as “the long tail”–the flat, horizontal part of the “L.”

Telepath Tactics

The Dwarves - Are Coming

by Myrthos, 17:24

Here is the Gamescom announcement for The Dwarves.

Ready your axes... The Dwarves are coming!Intense tactical RPG for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will debut at Gamescom

Munich/Bremen, July 23, 2015/... The game for everyone who needs more beer, beards and battle in their lives. The Dwarves is a tactical RPG with an innovative combat system, based on the bestselling fantasy novel of the same name, and will receive its world debut at Gamescom next month.

The revolutionary Crowd-Combat System forms the core of The Dwarves, meaning that enemies exhibit a flocking behavior and are influenced by physics. If a dwarf lands a mighty blow with a heavy war hammer, the impacted orcs are thrown back, colliding with their allies and some of them might even be pushed into an abyss! It's only through tactical use of the environment and all of the heroes skills that players will be able to survive against the hordes outnumbering them by 100 to 1.

The Dwarves is developed by established German studio King Art Games, the creative force behind The Book of Unwritten Tales-Series, Battle Worlds: Kronos, The Raven and many more.

Key features of The Dwarves:

The main character in the game is the dwarf Tungdil, who grew up among humans. Over the course of the story he gathers a group of up to 12 companions around him; each of whom have a unique backstory and individual battle skills.

Before each battle you assemble a group of up to four heroes, who then fight against hundreds of enemies simultaneously... Helm's Deep sends its regards!

Innovative Crowd-Combat System: Enemies have a flocking behavior and react using realistic physics. Every action of the player has an impact on all enemies.

You travel across Girdlegard on a world map that contains dozens of battlefields and places just waiting to be discovered.

Bestselling author Markus Heitz is directly involved in the project as a consultant and will contribute some quests and brand new characters.

The Dwarves

Dark Souls III - Preview @ Eurogamer

by Myrthos, 14:46

Eurogamer has a preview of Dark Souls 3 based on a hands-off session with Hidetaka Miyazaki.

In the ashes of the aftermath, we pick up a greatsword, and begin to test out the new adjustments to Dark Souls' combat system. The biggest of these thus far, a mechanic that seems to have been at least partially borrowed from Bloodborne, has players capable of deploying different stances for different types of weapon. It's not entirely clear how this will work yet, but in the case of the greatsword, players can perform a strong, two-handed upward stab motion which will actually launch enemies into the air.

From Software is calling this new mechanic 'Weapon Arts,' and it's designed to give specific arms additional, unique attacks. Essentially, it's adding a little something extra to the system regular Souls fans will now be intimately familiar with, without changing the basic mechanics too much - giving you more choice than simply 'normal' and 'heavy' attacks and contributing to the role-play element of the game. With a standard-looking straight sword, for example, you can enter into a 'ready' stance that will allow you to perform two special attacks; a heavy swipe to break an enemy's shield guard, and a running sweep to thrust them forward quickly. When we find a Legion Scimitar towards the end of the demo, we're able to dual-wield it with another and perform a spin attack, a move that can kill off multiple undead enemies at once. Miyazaki warns that it isn't a move you'd want to try on, say, a Knight (another Souls staple that returns in 3) - but used for a crowd-control on a bunch of low-level enemies, it's effective. Weapon Arts aren't exclusively the preserve of melee weapons, however; short bows can be fired quickly and consecutively during battle. You can still line up and take shots from afar, but this new streamlined mechanic will likely make them a much more viable option during prolonged, engaged combat.

Dark Souls III

Roguelike Mega Collection - 700+ free games

by Arhu, 13:32

Reddit moderator and roguelike curator foamed released a torrent containing 700+ free roguelikes. As lots of variants or minor games are no longer available elsewhere, this will make sure the included games are protected from vanishing altogether.

The bundle contains over 700 free and/or open source roguelikes, there might be a few free roguelites as well. This bundle mostly contains Windows executables, if I had added the same games for Linux and Mac OS the size would've almost tripled, but I might make a combined Win/Linux/Mac OS bundle at some time in the future. The size of the torrent is already at about 6.8gb.

It does not include any illegal or pirated content, if there's a paid version of the game it's not included, only free games are featured. If you do however find any or don't want me to share your game then please let me know and I'll get right on it.

Zombasite - Development Update

Even though the Zombasite (zombie parasites) are out of control, the land of Aleria is still swarming with all sorts of dangerous monsters. There are a ton of different monsters in Zombasite with a large variety of abilities.

For those of you that have played our previous games, you will recognize some of the monsters.NOTE: There are plenty of spoilers below, so don't read any further if that is going to bother you.

Overview

Zombasite is a zombie apocalypse action RPG set in a dynamic, evolving, fantasy world for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The dark elves have always played god by creating and enhancing underworld slave creatures. As they watched a horde of zombies destroy the huge demon city Kraval, the dark elves were tantalized by the devastating power of uncontrolled zombies, and desired to control and increase it. When they wove their dominating magic into a few captive zombies something went horribly wrong!

They hadn't known the powerful necromancer, Ciglio, had created these zombies. To control his huge armies of undead, Ciglio permanently bound his zombies and their infected victims to him. This binding was so powerful, their loyalty surpassed his untimely death. In the dark elves' pride and lust, their magic twisted into Ciglio's binding, fusing into a new, uncontrollable creation, the Zombasite.

Zombasite is a nasty, voracious, all-consuming Zombie Parasite. It doesn't just reanimate the dead into mindless zombies. It is intelligent, insatiable, and unstoppable—infecting and killing the living, spreading faster and in more ways, helping the dead utilize many of their original skills, and mutating the dead with new powers. Dark elf zombies are terrifying!

So what does this have to do with you? You are the leader of a clan trying to survive the apocalypse. This is easier said than done. When a follower dies, they can't be saved by any means. The Zombasite is highly contagious and zombies are quickly ravaging the world's surface. Food is a critical resource that must be obtained. Vendors are rare and have limited supplies. Some of the stronger monsters have survived and are as dangerous as ever. Clans of humans and monsters are fighting over what few supplies are left. Even within your own clan it isn't safe. Humans living on the edge are even more unstable than usual. So yeah, survival isn't easy.

Zombasite is scheduled to be released in the 2nd quarter of 2015, however it will be released when it's done.

Features

Survive the zombie apocalypse in a fantasy world

Experience uniquely created worlds for every game, with different areas, monsters, items, and quests

Witcher 3 - New Finisher Animations

The double helix triple backspin stab to the face DLC.With the just released, highly anticipated Patch 1.07 our hunt is more accessible, more convenient and all around better. But while business is business for professional Witchers, it's also high time for something with a bit more... pizzazz. Forget Wolf School, here comes the Cool School, and Geralt just picked up a few new tricks at Kewl Morhen. Today's DLC introduces a pack of all-new combat finishers to truly take your sword skills to the next level of badass. Blood, guts and gory… It's the White Wolf now with more bite, in this week episode of the FREE DLC Program! INSTALLING THE FREE CONTENT: Here is how you can grab and install your new DLC in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Add the 16 FREE DLC Program to your account from its product page. It's like buying a game, but free.

A) If you're using GOG Galaxy:

Select The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from the sidebar to open its game page.

Click on the drop-down labeled "More", (located next to the PLAY button) and choose "Configure".

The Configure page will feature all available DLCs listed towards the bottom.

Select each DLC that you want to install, and GOG Galaxy will do the rest. If you want to remove the DLC from your game, simply uncheck the selection box.

B) If you're using the website:

You can download installers for each DLC pack manually. Simply head to the Library section of My Account, locate The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and download the files you want.

Rampant Games - Five harsh truths about working in a creative industry

If you are in a creative industry, you may bleed for your product. You may put a lot of passion, craftsmanship, blood, sweat, tears, and artistry into what you do. But in the end... it's not about you. It's about them. The audience. The customer doesn't care how many late nights you had, how many stresses it put on your family, how much you spent on it. They simply want to know how much it will improve their lives, and how much that is worth to them in terms of their time and their cold, hard cash.

Yes, the pain and frustration and lost opportunities and all that part of your life may end up sitting in a bundle deal or in an Amazon sale for less than a dollar. Acknowledge. Move on. And focus on making your audience happy. Hopefully that mostly coincides with your own preferences.

Victor Vran - Review Roundup

Overall I found this game to be an absolute joy to play, it of course has similarities with Diablo 3 however I found that I lost interest with Diablo whereas with Victor Vran I thoroughly enjoyed it and find myself itching to play some more. This can be attributed to the customisation of the character, the hilarious movie quotes (Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Star Wars to name but two) and other equally hilarious abuse received from "The Voice (inside your head)" or perhaps it's the hilarity that ensued from meeting the "Gangnam Style" dancing skeletons. Sufficive to say this new direction for Haemimont Games paid off with dividends, and I for one can't wait to see both what additions they make to the game and of course the next game they work on.

Victor Vran is far from a complete game. Despite the presence of magic it is no Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy, lacking the freedom to explore, story and diversity of these titles. Where the game excels is in its fast, frantic combat and the continual growth of skills, weapon upgrades and magical powers which make the battles increasingly diverse and rewarding. If you enjoy melee action you will enjoy Victor Vran. I certainly did.

A few of the game mechanics were also a bit lacking. There’s just one class in Victor Vran, with no skill trees or anything of that nature. Although there are several different weapon types, all weapons of a given type have the same attack style. This means there’s not a lot of diversity in the combat. It seemed like ranged attacks were very advantageous, so I found myself using the same couple of weapon types throughout the game. This is balanced somewhat through other systems – like challenges, destiny cards, and so forth – which can shake up the gameplay enough to keep it feeling new, but it’s still something that veteran aRPG’ers will likely see as a drawback.

If you’re an action RPG fan, don’t hesitate to give Victor Vran a try, especially at its $19.99 price point. There’s certainly deals to be had considering the game is on Steam, but we highly recommend it at its retail price.

The leveling up system is typical, but introduces – what I enjoyed a lot – the destiny cards. These cards add a passive bonus to your character, including: Healing auras, Freezing auras, critical hit boosts, and so forth. I found them to really level the playing field when the game’s difficulty scaled up. Leveling up also introduced an opportunity to collect “treasure chests” instead of an instant upgrade in order to save up for a better item. I felt that focus lead me to find Victor Vran a very cleverly designed Isometric Shooter.